A state appeals court panel Tuesday rejected a bid by a man convicted of his girlfriend’s 1988 murder in North Hollywood to have his sentence reduced from death to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed a judge’s ruling that rejected a recommendation in 2022 by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to re-sentence Stephen Frederick Cole based on his age, numerous medical infirmities and a claim that he suffered from brain damage and had been neglected and abused as a child.
Cole, now 73, was convicted of first-degree murder for the slaying of Mary Ann Mahoney.
Shortly after the Aug. 14, 1988, attack, Cole told a firefighter that he “lit the house on fire,” and repeatedly admitted that he set the house on fire and that he wanted to kill Mahoney, with whom he had a tumultuous, on-again, off-again relationship, according to the appellate court panel’s ruling.
Mahoney — who suffered severe burns and injuries — died about 1 1/2 weeks later, the justices noted.
Jurors in Cole’s trial found true the special circumstance allegation that the murder involved the infliction of torture, but deadlocked on another special circumstance allegation that Cole committed the murder while engaged in arson.
Cole was sentenced to death in 1992.
In its ruling, the appellate court panel concluded that the judge “did not err in denying the recommendation” by the District Attorney’s Office to recall Cole’s death sentence and to sentence him instead to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“Even on appeal, there is still no evidence that the defendant has shown any remorse or insight into his actions in the 30-plus years he had been incarcerated,” the justices found in their 26-page ruling. “The trial court properly considered defendant’s lack of remorse when rendering its decision.”
In 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a moratorium on the death penalty in the state and ordered the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison to be immediately closed.